Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Thermal effects on the critical current of spin torque switching in spin valve nanopillars

Published

Author(s)

Michael Schneider, Matthew Pufall, William Rippard, Stephen E. Russek, Jordan A. Katine

Abstract

In spin valve nanopillars, temperature affects the spin torque reversal of the free magnetic layer. The authors compare values of zero temperature critical switching current Ic0 extrapolated from room temperature pulsed current switching measurements to those of quasistatic current sweeps at 5 K. The values extrapolated from the room temperature pulsed switching probability measurements always less than or equal to those of the low temperature quasistatic measurements. Further the room temperature device-to-device variations of the critical switching current are drastically reduced at low temperature, where Ic0 agrees with the theory. Finally, the authors find that Ic0 scales with the free layer volume, as expected.
Citation
Applied Physics Letters
Volume
90

Keywords

Current-induced magnetization reversal, Magnetic devices, Spin momentum transfer, Spin torque

Citation

Schneider, M. , Pufall, M. , Rippard, W. , Russek, S. and Katine, J. (2007), Thermal effects on the critical current of spin torque switching in spin valve nanopillars, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32441 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created February 27, 2007, Updated October 12, 2021